For supporters of the president — and most casual consumers of news — the distinction is immaterial between a court order targeting the president-elect and a court order under which the president’s communications may have been collected incidentally.

“That lack of understanding of the granularity is exactly what the president and his supporters are counting on,” said Pat Eddington, a surveillance policy expert at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute.

If it turns out that any of Manafort’s communications with the president were collected at Trump Tower — which is possible given that he had an apartment in the building — “then the whole story is, ‘it’s happening every time, all the time, and I told you so,’” Shedd said.

But that argument is specious, he said. “Trump is only the other half of the conversation by coincidence. Obviously Manafort called people, so of course there would be coverage of the other party.”

That said – does this mean that some mole in the FBI leaked the news of the Manafort wiretap to Trump? And is that leaker still on the job?

Jason. I agree with your comment. Cutting 300 million from public education while supporting NASCAR. Deplorable. They have wrested control of the state’s piggy bank for the benefit of the privileged few. NASCAR and other privileged interests, get your hands out of my god-damned pockets.